Monday, February 28, 2011

The consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus has called on lettings agents, landlords and deposit schemes to sign up for online feedback so that tenants can comment on how good their letting experience has been with them.

They complain that prospective tenant can usually find little or no information at all regarding a landlord before committing to a tenancy.

Consumer Focus accuse many landlord of providing a poor service and experience for tenants and are calling for the development of a "Trip Advisor" style website to help tenants pick the best and avoid the worst landlords.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Below is a selection of the most popular buy-to-let mortgages currently available. For full information on these products, and all other buy-to-let mortgage schemes available to you, please visit www.propertyhawk.co.uk/mortgages.aspx to use the free online buy-to-let mortgage finder. If you would like to discuss your requirements with a member of the support team please telephone 029 2069 5446 or you can submit a quick enquiry directly to the team by filling in our online enquiry form.

Interest Rate

Overall Cost for Comparison

Max LTV

Product Detail

Completion Fee

Early Repayment Charges

3.88% Tracker

4.2% APR

75%

Variable tracker rate of BBR + 3.38% for the lifetime of the loan. This product is available up to 75% LTV and there is a rental calculation of 100% at a notional rate of 8.5%. An application fee will apply. Available on a repayment basis only. The completion fee is payable at offer stage. Refer all cases for fees, maximum LTV and loan amounts.

REFER

1% of original balance being repaid for 1 year

3.99% Discount

5.4% APR

75%

Exclusive discounted rate of 3.99% (1.65% discount off the lender's SVR) for 2 years then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 5.64% for the remainder of the term. This product has no early repayment charges. It is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 135% at payrate. There is a booking fee of £250 and an application fee will apply.

£2499

No

4.49% Fixed

4.9% APR

60%

Fixed rate of 4.49% until 31/03/2013 then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.74% for the remainder of the term. There is a free valuation up to £700 for purchases and remortgages and free legals for remortgages only. This product is available up to 60% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. There is a booking fee of £250 and an application fee will apply.

£999

4% of amount being repaid until 31/03/2013

4.8% Fixed

5.2% APR

75%

Fixed rate of 4.80% until 01/04/2013 then reverting to a variable of BBR + 4.24% to give a current rate of 4.74% for the remainder of the term. The product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at the payrate. An application fee will apply.

2.5%

3% of amount being repaid until 01/04/2013

4.8% Tracker

5.6% APR

75%

Variable tracker rate of LIBOR + 4.00% for 2 years then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate of 4.60% + 0.25% = 4.85% to the end of year 5, then for the remainder of the term, the lender's standard variable rate of 4.60% + 0.75% = 5.35%. The product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 130% at a notional rate of 7%. Please note that the completion fee will increase by 0.25% on applications for HMOs, freehold houses split into flats and limited companies. An application fee will normally apply.

2.25%

3% of amount being repaid for 2 years

4.95% Tracker

5.1% APR

75%

Variable tracker rate of BBR + 4.45% for 2 years then reverting to a variable rate of BBR + 4.24% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. There is £500 cashback on completion. An application fee will apply.

£2249

3% of amount being repaid for 2 years

4.95% Discount

6.1% APR

70%

Exclusive discounted rate of 4.95% (1.04% discount off the lender's SVR + 0.3%) for 2 years then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate (currently 5.69%) + 0.3% for the remainder of the term. There is a free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only. This product is available up to 70% LTV and the rental calculation is 130% at payrate. There is a booking fee of £199 and an application fee will apply.

0%

Tapered charges of 3/2% of the amount being repaid for the first 2 years

4.99% Fixed

5.7% APR

80%

Fixed rate of 4.99% until 30/04/2013 then reverting the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.99% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 80% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. An application fee will apply.

3.5% (min £595)

5% of amount being repaid until 30/04/2013

5.09% Fixed

5.5% APR

75%

Product for first time landlords only. Fixed rate of 5.09% until 28/02/2013 then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.99% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. An application fee will apply.

2.5% (min £595)

5% of amount being repaid until 28/02/2013

5.19% Fixed

5.5% APR

75%

Fixed rate of 5.19% until 31/05/2013 reverting to the lender's standard variable rate + 0.5% to give a current rate of 5.10% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at a notional frate of 5%. There is a booking fee of £150 and an application fee will normally apply.

2% (max £2000)

5% of amount being repaid until 31/05/2013

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice. Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

Allsop's Residential Auction team kicked off 2011 with a £45.5m two day sale on 15th and 17th February posting an 83% success. This compares with a £40m total in February 2010.
"It seems that auction buyers have returned to the market with determination" said auctioneer and partner, Gary Murphy. "We were encouraged by a strong attendance from the start with enthusiastic bidding across all sectors."

Day One saw a total of 23 regulated tenancy investments go under the hammer. Strong competition between the main players in this specialist market ensured that 22 sold at strong prices (96%).
Ground rents sold well, particularly houses subject to shorter unexpired lease terms.

A selection of 45 lots in the Midlands on behalf of Network Rail drew much attention. Streets of houses subject to assured shorthold tenancies were broken up to investors along with surplus sites of various shapes and sizes with potential for development. 40 Sold (89%).

No less than seven housing associations were represented offering a total of 32 lots. 29 sold (91%). Seven local authorities offered 13 lots of which 10 sold (77%).

And previous resistance encountered to stock in some parts of the North of England appears to have faded. "Towards the end of last year, we experienced a dip in success rates outside of the perceived safer areas of London and the South-East." said Murphy. "At this sale, we were selling Northern stock more easily. Confidence in the regions appears to be returning."

YIELDS ANALYSIS

Of the 70 Asurred Shorthold lots offered 61 sold representing a 87.1% success rate with an average lot size of £99,869 and a rental yield of 8.2%.

23 Regulated tenancies were sold with an average rental yield of 4.2% whilst the average yield for the ground rents sold was 6.3%

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

There are a lot of dodgy property gurus, BMV operators who boast about how many properties they've amassed.

They talk, waffle, preach on the immense wealth they can help others achieve ( for a fee) and promise them amazing property deals ( big deposit required upfront of course ).

Many talk of how they have built massive portfolios in just a few recent years. ( since 2005)

How can this be true?

Well it's not, another grinning property messiah went to the wall at the end of 2010 owing millions to creditors, and as is the way of con-men, has reopened his doors already under a different brand but same old story.

Promise the gullible riches, fleece them of their life savings, close the doors, lock up and move on, .......now that is a tried and tested route to immense wealth.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Even once you have convinced the adjudicator that your claim is justified, and that you have a valid reason to withhold some of the deposit, your work is not done. You also need to prove to the adjudicator that the amount of money you are claiming is also justified.

Time and again I hear from landlords who have won the argument over whether they deserve any money, but who have only been awarded a fraction of the amount they claimed for. This kind of result can be extremely frustrating for landlords as they have put in all the effort necessary to win, but failed at the last hurdle, however, landlords that fail to address the issue of how much they should be awarded leave themselves wide open to this kind of result.

It is of paramount importance that you include evidence as to the cost as well as the necessity of repair. If you merely ask for an amount, however reasonable, without including a receipt, invoice or estimate, the adjudicator may not even believe that you intend to spend any award on repairing the damage in question. Even if you can’t afford to carry out the work until you have the deposit money, you still need to gather some evidence as to the likely cost.

Of course, there will be instances where the adjudicator thinks that you are claiming too much, regardless of how much evidence you submit. At least if you have included relevant evidence as to the cost, they will have to justify the award they make in the decision.

Tom Derrett is the Principal of Deposit Claim, an experienced deposit protection adjudicator and an expert on the Deposit Protection Schemes. Tom helps landlords to claim money through the deposit protection schemes.

Tom is an experienced deposit protection adjudicator who was unhappy at having to decide a disproportionate number of cases against landlords when he felt that they could often have won if they had presented their case properly.
In a twist on the poacher turned gamekeeper scenario, Tom set up ADR Solution, a deposit protection consultancy, to provide landlords with the advice and support necessary to win deposit disputes, at an affordable cost.

Tenant demand has now risen for six consecutive quarters and only 4% of landlords reported falling demand from tenants in the quarter, the lowest proportion since the third quarter of 2008 and the 2nd lowest since Paragon started collating the data in 2004.

The average void period fell for the second quarter in a row to an average of 2.9 weeks a year. Landlord insurance - discounted rates

Friday, February 18, 2011

Landlords converting flats above shops can be faced with a low energy rating based on my recent experience with a building in central London.

The developer had split three floors of space above a shop unit in to three beautifully finished flats. However following my site survey the EPCs produced rated one of the flats at E and the other two at F. This was despite installing double glazing throughout and part of the building being New Build. Potentially, the two F rated flats could be subject to Council enforced compulsory improvements if the governments planned measures are implemented in 2013.

This particular building was always likely to have a lower than average rating, as it was end of terrace and as such loses heat from three sides. The heating chosen was electric panels with an electric immersion for hot water. The single most important factor to improve the rating would have been to run gas to the building and install condensing combination boilers.

Clearly there is a cost associated with this but this is certainly less than having to retro fit gas heating or being forced to insulate the solid walls which is a prospect the landlord may face come 2013.

We are delighted to announce the launch of two new exclusive buy-to-let products with Leeds Building Society. The 3.75% 2 year discount is a market-leader in the 70% LTV bracket and the 4.95% 2 year discount tracker with free valuation, free legals and no completion fee is great for remortgages.

Government changes to the Housing Benefit system which would have impacted on landlords letting to tenants on long-term housing benefit have been reversed after a last minute intervention by Nick Clegg.

The proposal which would have involved a 10% cut to benefit levels to tenants who had been unemployed for over 1 year was scrapped after 'Old Cleggy' voiced concerns that such changes would act as a disincentive for landlords to let to unemployed tenants in areas of high unemployment.

From a landlord letting to unemployed tenants this has to be good news. As a citizen who feels the state has created an underclass of benefit seeking scroungers. I can't see how this will help reverse the situation. Nick what ever happened to tough love!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Fourteen days has gone by and Property Sparrow's recalcitrant tenant has neither filed a defence nor handed his key in.

She has taken the next step and signed the form to ask the Court for a possession order. After work she ran down to the Post Office with it; every day counts as there's no income from this flat. She's not sure how long she will have to wait but hopes it won't be long now.

They appeared with a website promising everything for landlords, sponsored trade shows, advertised everywhere and phoned us every week to try to get us to promote them, they must have spent a fortune on it.

I've just followed an old link on google and they seem to have sank into the virtual graveyard alongside the corpses of millions of other internet pipe dreams and misguided experiments.

All that promotional money down the 'interweb' pan.

Well they're not the first or the last, but obviously not that 'smart' either.

The 85% LTV mortgage is truely back according to a weekend article in the FT.

They report that mortgage providers are relaxing their criteria and upping their Loan To Values.

At the moment Kensington is the only lender doing an 85% LTV. Lenders prepared to advance up to 80% towards the purchase price include the Clysedale/ Yorkshire Bank with a very competitive 4.99% lifetime variable rate and fee of 999 pounds. The Mortgage Works are also offering 80% mortgages.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Once you have successfully got your claim in front of the adjudicator, you need to prove that you deserve the money you are claiming. This is not necessarily as simple as it may sound.

Take for example a claim for rent arrears. In my experience, around half of all claims include an element of unpaid rent, which often relates to the end of the tenancy. You need to look at the claim systematically and analyse the different elements that you need to convince the adjudicator of in order to win. They might include:

That the tenancy was valid.

That the deposit can be used for rent arrears,

How much the rent was.

How much rent was paid and when.

The dates of the fixed term.

When and how the tenant gave notice.

Whether the notice was valid.

When the the notice took effect.

When you were able to gain possession of the property.

To successfully convince the adjudicator that the tenant is in arrears, you may need to submit evidence to prove any of the points above. On which points the claim turns will depend on your circumstances and on the defence strategy employed by the tenant. By this stage, however, we know the tenant isn’t going to roll over easily, so make sure you are properly prepared.

The same is true of disputes relating to damage. You need to systematically analyse your claim and work out the different elements that you need to prove. Once you have done that, you can work out what evidence you have for each element. Once you have completed your analysis, use the notes you have made to write out your claim.

Next week, money!

Tom Derrett is the Principal of Deposit Claim, an experienced deposit protection adjudicator and an expert on the Deposit Protection Schemes. Tom helps landlords to claim money through the deposit protection schemes.

Tom is an experienced deposit protection adjudicator who was unhappy at having to decide a disproportionate number of cases against landlords when he felt that they could often have won if they had presented their case properly.
In a twist on the poacher turned gamekeeper scenario, Tom set up ADR Solution, a deposit protection consultancy, to provide landlords with the advice and support necessary to win deposit disputes, at an affordable cost.

I was chatting with him last week in the pub about how it was all going.

Apparently, the first lot of student tenants that moved in Autumn 2010 are all moving out. Poor old Jan is now frantically running around to try and get in a new lot of post grad students.

Now Jan did well getting a shared house of tenants and achieve a 8.5% yield. But this just highlights the big downside to any multiple let. It's that much harder to manage.

Before meeting my mate for a pint I stopped off to see a long term tenant (over 7 years at the last count) about a damp issue. Masten is in the middle of decorating MY property. Brilliant just what you want when your tenant takes effective ownership of YOUR property. I might not be achieving the heady heights of an 8.5% yield. At current market values it's probably nearer 6%. However, I value my free time and my sanity too much to try and manage 5 short term tenancies.

If you do think about a multiple tenancy. It would make sense if you have only a few properties and want to sweat your property assets. I would say that you should be looking for at least a 25% premium on a single tenancy.

Each landlord needs to work out what type of business will suit their circumstances and their own individual personal and financial goals. A critical consideration in all of this is time so remember to factor that into your equation!

Further news on the Irish BTL bubble is that the Bank of Scotland's has announced that it is prepared to make capital write-offs for those property investors unable to meet their payments.

However the other main BTL mortgage lender in Ireland, the Belgian-owned Irish mortgage company KBC has not followed the Bank of Scotlands lead. KBC responded to the announcement with "The principle we adopt is we lend people money over a long period of time and we expect to get it back over a long period of time."

There are now 1.3m buy-to-let mortgages worth £152bn and that accounts for 12% of the whole mortgage market. The value of lending in 2010 rose 22% to £10.4bn, with the average size of the loan increasing to more than £100,000.

The CML concluded that home buyers’ are finding It difficult to raise the size of the deposit they require to buy so this is increasing demand for rental properties. They also said that the buy-to-let market will continue to benefit from this.Their main concern for the health of the buy-to-let mortgage market is rising interest rates and the potential for rental arrears.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

A recent victory for local landlords of Southwark who opposed their local Council’s proposed changes to room sizes in HMO’s, proves working together can achieve a positive outcome.

Southwark Council had created a revised version of the council standards concerning HMO (Houses of Multiple Occupation) room sizes. The council wanted to increase the bedroom size in HMO properties from the legal norm listed in the Housing Act 1985 of 6.5 sq/m, to 10 sq/m. For many landlords in the area this was clearly an unacceptable change that would have had huge negative repercussions on their respective businesses, making the majority of properties unusable for HMO accommodation.

This change in standards was going to directly affect HMO landlord and Platinum Property Partners (PPP) Franchise Partner, Liz Bunton, who on learning of the proposed changes approached PPP and the National Landlords Association (NLA) for help and assistance. PPP and the NLA then organised a meeting with other local landlords and property investors to prompt action to ensure the draft standards would be withdrawn.Discounted landlord insurance - special rates

Below is a selection of the most popular buy-to-let mortgages currently available. For full information on these products, and all other buy-to-let mortgage schemes available to you, please visit www.propertyhawk.co.uk/mortgages.aspx to use the free online buy-to-let mortgage finder. If you would like to discuss your requirements with a member of the support team please telephone 029 2069 5446 or you can submit a quick enquiry directly to the team by filling in our online enquiry form.

Most popular buy-to-let mortgages

Interest Rate

Overall Cost for Comparison

Max LTV

Product Detail

Completion Fee

Early Repayment Charges

3.88% Tracker

4.2% APR

75%

Variable tracker rate of BBR + 3.38% for the lifetime of the loan. This product is available up to 75% LTV and there is a rental calculation of 100% at a notional rate of 8.5%. An application fee will apply. Available on a repayment basis only. The completion fee is payable at offer stage. Refer all cases for fees, maximum LTV and loan amounts.

REFER

1% of original balance being repaid for 1 year

4.25% Tracker

4.8% APR

65%

Variable tracker rate of BBR + 3.75% until 31/03/2013 then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.74% for the remainder of the term. Free valuation up to £700 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only. This product is available up to 65% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. There is a booking fee of £250 and an application fee will apply.

0%

4% of amount being repaid until 31/03/2013

4.5% Tracker

5.1% APR

75%

Variable tracker rate of BBR + 4.00% for 2 years then reverting to a variable rate of BBR + 4.24% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. An application fee will apply.

2%

3% of amount being repaid for 2 years

4.69% Tracker

5.1% APR

60%

Variable tracker rate of BBR + 4.19% until 31/03/2013 then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.99% for the remainder of the term. There is a free valuation and standard legal fees for remortgages. This product is available up to 60% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% a 4.99%. An application fee will apply.

0%

4% of original balance being repaid until 31/03/2013

4.8% Fixed

5.2% APR

75%

Fixed rate of 4.80% until 01/04/2013 then reverting to a variable of BBR + 4.24% to give a current rate of 4.74% for the remainder of the term. The product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at the payrate. An application fee will apply.

2.5%

3% of amount being repaid until 01/04/2013

4.8% Tracker

5.6% APR

75%

Variable tracker rate of LIBOR + 4.00% for 2 years then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate of 4.60% + 0.25% = 4.85% to the end of year 5, then for the remainder of the term, the lender's standard variable rate of 4.60% + 0.75% = 5.35%. The product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 130% at a notional rate of 7%. Please note that the completion fee will increase by 0.25% on applications for HMOs, freehold houses split into flats and limited companies. An application fee will normally apply.

2.25%

3% of amount being repaid for 2 years

4.99% Fixed

5.7% APR

80%

Fixed rate of 4.99% until 30/04/2013 then reverting the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.99% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 80% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. An application fee will apply.

3.5% (min £595)

5% of amount being repaid until 30/04/2013

5.19% Fixed

5.5% APR

75%

Fixed rate of 5.19% until 31/05/2013 reverting to the lender's standard variable rate + 0.5% to give a current rate of 5.10% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 75% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at a notional frate of 5%. There is a booking fee of £150 and an application fee will normally apply.

2%

5% of amount being repaid until 31/05/2013

5.74% Fixed

5.3% APR

65%

Fixed rate of 5.74% until 28/02/2013 then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.99% for the remainder of the term. This product is available up to 65% LTV and the rental calculation is 125% at payrate. There is no completion fee. An application fee will apply.

0%

5% of amount being repaid until 30/04/2013

5.89% Fixed

5.2% APR

70%

5.79% fixed rate until 01/02/2013 then reverting to the lender's standard variable rate which is currently 4.79% for the remainder of the term. This product is available to first time buyers and up to 70% LTV. The rental calculation is 120% at payrate. An application fee will apply.

£1995

4% of the outstanding balance as of 1st January until 01/04/2013

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice. Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

A London Council is attempting to ease the demand on scarce social housing resources by putting its residents in touch with private landlords.

Harrow Council have established their own agency Help2Let to put residents seeking accommodation in touch with approved private landlords who have met the councils set standards.

The tenant find service is paid for by the landlord who in return receive advice and also a 2 month rent guarantee bond.

This scheme is an example of the increasingly prevalent private sector leasing initiative where the public sector seeks to utilise the private sector to fill their accommodation capacity gap.

The experience of landlords of the schemes appears to be mixed. Some like the certainty and convenience of a medium term let. Whilst others appear to have had their property returned in less than ideal condition! Any views...

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

The Government is facing a High Court challenge over their decision to scrap the previous Labour governments legislation requiring all HMO properties to obtain planning permission where 3 or more non family tenants were sharing.

The Coalition government very sensibly in my view decided to scrap this blanket control in favour of a more selective area based approached secured through an Article 4 direction.

Four Local Authorities have decided to launch a High Court Challenge over the way the legislation was changed which could potentially open up the Councils to millions of pounds worth of compensation by landlords affected by the change.

One council that is considering adopting selective planning powers to control the numbers of student tenants is in Bath. A good idea? Probably not if you are a student landlord.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Another of Property Sparrow's tenants has run up arrears. That's two out of the four.

This tenant is on benefits and his rent is covered in full by the Local Housing Allowance. The tenancy agreement was signed for a year and it was all going so well. As he got the tenancy via the Council's homeless services unit, the Housing Benefit payments were being paid direct to Property Sparrow's Lettings Agent.

Six months into it and the Council has issued a claim review or an 'intervention' to checkthe tenant's identity and that he is still eligible for Housing Benefit. The tenant has not replied to the Council. His Housing Benefit has been suspended and, with it, Property Sparrow's income from this flat. (Property Sparrow's flat is not in Telford but Telford's website here describes this process much better than she can).

The Lettings Agent has been round to see the tenant several times but has not been able to solve this yet. A Ground 8 notice has been served; a reminder to Property Sparrow that the solution is action. Always.

Well it seems like a lifetime away, but those with a good memory of the buy-to-let mortgage market who cast they minds back to the heady days of 2007 will remember that 85% LTV mortgages were common place. These all disappeared with the event of the credit crunch.

However, one lender Kensington Mortgages has entered back into the market with a BTL mortgage that only requires a landlord to put down 15% equity. The mortgage is available on a 5.99% 2 year fix and comes with a 2.5% fee.

The one downside is that interest cover is quite high meaning that your buy-to-let will have to be yielding well above 6% to be able to secure the maximum loan to value.